As he heads for number one today, Matt Cardle has been embroiled in a bitter feud over suggestions he made up a story about “gaining four brothers”.

While on the X Factor Matt – who we spotted outside the May Fair hotel over the weekend – revealed that his mum took on the four sons of her best friend Sharon after she’d died in a car crash, and he compared them all to being like his “brothers”.

But David Lloyd, the father of three of the boys, told the press that he’d massively exaggerated those claims as the group were nothing more than good pals who’d known each other from school.

Understandably Matt has been left very upset by Lloyd’s comments – he told the News of The World today:

“It’s made me and my family look like a bunch of liars – heartless people who would try and gain from the situation. I’d never do anything like that.

“I feel so let down and the boys are upset. I consider them family. I talk about them as my brothers as much as I talk about my blood brother Dom. My mum is absolutely devastated about this. It’s not fair.”

Meanwhile all four of the brothers have now reaffirmed Matt’s claims about their familial relationship, saying: “we all consider Matt and Dom as brothers”.

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